Fantastic finish

I covered the game between Terra Linda football and Analy last night and I have to say it was the most dramatic, heart-wrenching finish I’ve seen while covering a high school football game. Yes, I did cover Redwood-San Rafael last year when the Bulldogs improbably won 6-0 on a 30-yard pass play as time expired. That was thrilling but it came out of nowhere. I was ready to write the awkward 0-0 tie story and suddenly the Bulldogs rescued me. The TL finish was as suspenseful as it could be, although ultimately the finish ended in disappointment for the Trojans.
I don’t feel I was able to give this game its proper due in print, due to having approximately 15 minutes to write that entire story. Hopefully I can expand on it a little in this space instead.

TL watched a 14-point lead turn into an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter but the Trojans drove down the field, converting 4th and 10 and 4th and 1 to keep the drive alive. Migdal raced to within inches of the goal line with 9 seconds left and spiked the ball with 5 seconds to play. A pass intended for Manoli was broken up in the end zone but there was defensive pass interference on the play so the clock read 0.00 but TL had one last shot. There appeared to be some confusion on where the backs should line up and Migdal ran a bootleg to the right side but 2 Analy defenders weren’t fooled and stopped Migdal short of the goal line. The Trojans were clearly stunned at the turn of events but vowed to learn from the loss.

TL led 22-8 on the strength of a crisp passing game and the ability fo force turnovers whenever Analy got within striking range. The Tigers coughed it up four times and turned the ball over on downs twice on Friday. TL quarterback Chris Migdal looked much more comfortable in the offense this year and his WR duo of Casey Maloney (who was hobbled by a bad ankle) and Christian Manoli looked to have the potential to form one of the MCAL’s better passing combos. Manoli had 6 catches for 96 yards and 2 scores. Maloney had 7 catches for roughly 70 yards.

As good as the passing game was for most of the game, it’s hard to run time off the clock and turn the fourth quarter into a short affair throwing the ball. The Trojans struggled in the run game (aside from a 25-yard score by new tailback Christion Coleman and Migdal’s running on the final drive). They also struggled to stop the run. On Analy’s first score of the game, the Tigers ran 8 plays all of them runs to take an 8-7 lead. Analy RB Joe Maloney was the best player on the field, accounting for over 230 yards of total offense and 2 touchdowns.

Still, TL had chances to extend to a 29-8 lead that would have put the game away but the turnover bug started biting and Analy drew closer with a TD to make it 22-15. TL’s next offensive play resulted in a fumble and that was the turning point of the game. Analy had a short field (20 yards) and tied the game with ease.

The story behind the story:

Friday night football games outside the county have always been a tough cover, but our deadline to finish the paper last season was 1 a.m. Our deadline this year is midnight, meaning my deadline to file the story and box is 11:30. You can imagine my dismay when the game was still going on in Sebastopol at 10:15 p.m. As much as I would have liked to see TL tie the game at the end, had it gone to OT, it probably wouldn’t have gotten in the paper. The game ended around 10:20, I got a handful of quotes as fast as I could and prepared to find my way to the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat in order to write the story and file it before deadline. I don’t know my way around Santa Rosa that well but I had Mapquest directions so I was good. Well, until I found that the northbound ramp for 101 was closed and had to improvise. Got to the PD around 11, giving me an entire 30 minutes to produce a box score (which proved lengthy thanks to the 50-something pass attempts in the game) and the gamer. As a result, 15-minute gamer for the win.

Next week I think I’m going to Pleasanton to cover Novato at Foothill. To my knowledge it’s on TV (so tv timeouts will drag the game past 3 hours) and I hope I’m mistaken I think it’s an 8 p.m. start. No idea how that’s going to work out. I could be wishing that game ended as “early” as 10:20 p.m.

Well, off to San Jose now for Novato vs. Valley Christian tonight. I covered a MC girls basketball game at VC two seasons ago I believe and the football stadium there was just amazing. The school is on a hill and you can see most of the city of San Jose lit up from there. Looking forward to this.